Life Extension Technology (Longevity with Immortalist and Health-Spanners)
I always hear that age is just a number but when people get to the age of 80 years, they start to feel that age isn’t just a number. When you ask a young person in his 40s that what does he see of himself in the next 60 years, they immediately do not want to go into such thought where they will be attacked by several aging diseases, sitting lonely on a chair and talking to oneself because the energy to go outside to play isn’t there any longer. At that point you wish age shouldn’t just be a number. You wish you could just rewind back to the days when you felt you had strength and remain that way.
There are two set of people when it comes to life extension and they are the immortalists and the health-spanners.
Immortalist want to match humans with undying technology, bringing trans-humanism where the consciousness of a human is downloaded into an avatar and the person could live again even though they are not in their real bodies, something like a cyborg. We see this too well in science fictions and trust they could be fun. Imagine seeing yourself in a new body made of fleshy materials but not your real human body and also require robotic simulations and actions to move and do other things (Maybe you have to charge yourself).
Health-spanners on the other hand do not believe in immortalization but rather are against ageing. They believe everyone should be able to live healthy and well for as long as possible without getting old even though not forever. Health-spanners want you to be able to play soccer at the age of 120 years if possible, they want to really make age a number without pain.
Let me do a little Talking to myself
Will it be possible to cure ageing if it is truly a disease as health-spanners assume it is? Every part of my body age at different time and pace, and this aging goes really down to the cells and molecular part of my body.
Hey! Come to think of it, if aging technique really works, will it be affordable?
Caloric Restriction (CRONA)
With this technique, people eat less calories about 50% less calories into the body while they supplement with vitamins. Maybe you did not know, a study showed that animals and humans that eat less calories tend to live longer as their bodies tend to repair damaged tissues. It is believed that reducing calorie intake by 50% will help to extend life.
Do you think this life is worth living long if you have to restrict a lot of intake into the body?
Also, study shows that when you starve yourself for at least 5 days in a month, your body will tend to repair its tissues during those period.
Stem cell Therapy
This is a very important therapy that isn’t new to a lot of people, where cell are extracted and turned into therapeutic stem cells which can be triggered to turn to any type of cell needed which could in turn become organs which could be implanted. Technology has helped advanced the use of 3D printer to create organs which could be used to replace old organs.
Nanobots
This is the ultimate solution that could exist currently. Nanobots are tiny micro robots that can be programmed to go into the human body and repair old, worn-out or ill and damaged cells, tissues and organs. Since ageing occurs due to cells, organ, and tissues getting worn-out and damaged, nanobot repairs could help extend the lifespan of humans.
In Conclusion
The FDA have been finding it difficult to approve any medication with the aim to fight ageing related issues or for longevity, or anti-ageing like the Metformin, it means there are telling the world that ageing is a disease. Also, there is a possibility that anti-ageing might become a big industry in the future with Google new Silicon Valley company Calico. Although, this company has been keeping their activities of the radar but for a company with over 1.2 billion dollars in bank. There is a possibility that new technology will come out soon for ageing.
Interesting article and indeed aging could be seen as a disease but it is part of 'life' isnt-it?
Then you could also tell me cancer and heart diseases are also part of life :).
I do believe in fasting once a week for 16-20 hours as it has been proven to help the body repair itself.
Have a great weekend @gbenga !
True, cancer and heart disease could be seen as part of life but they are actually diseases so that means aging could be see as a disease as well.
So many people want to live with the believe that they will someday die but not with the fear of dying old and confined in one room without much attention.
Fasting for 16 - 20 hours is also a way to live longer but this isn't helping for people with peptic ulcer.
Have a wonderful weekend @vlemon.
The idea of immortality, I have seen it in a movie before but does it really exist?
Scientists are working hard to see it come to a reality but currently, making old age more fun and easy without falling ill due to weak immune system.
Living forever sounds great. But are we ready for that? Imagine if Genghis Khan were still alive? Or Hitler? Thank God for our mortality. I think it's a double-edged sword. There is a reason why humans have a short life span, and a very short one if I may say so, compared to stars and space phenomena. We can't even get to the nearest solar system without perishing first.
I'm sure humans would go crazy after their 1000th birthday.
The best thing from my point of view is to have an expiration date of 100 years without suffering from any disease or rheumatic pain.
Nice post, thanks for sharing :D
That is a good point about Hitler. There are definitely some parts of history that we are lucky we have moved on from. Attitudes and technology progress. You don't need to go back far in history and you will find a world that was built on class division, sexism, racism - would we want people with dated mentalities around now? If we lived to for another couple of hundred years - how would people look at our generation?
I'm sure at some point history tends to repeat itself
If people like hitler lived forever, we would be in mecury by now facing the direct hot of the sun.
It is certainly terrifying to see how governments hide truths from us and deny us access to such important things as prolonging life. I believe that reducing calories and improving our body is a solution that will make us feel better and therefore invent better solutions. It must be worked on at that point, and hopefully those who have the power do not block the lot so much to reach our destination.
Almost everything around life including technology is being influenced be the government but in due time they always come out.
This publication made me remember.
You are born, you grow, you reproduce, you die.
Everything is part of life until diseases, where they attack and in some way only the one who resists it is the one who continues.
Now the technology helps, of course it helps, however it cannot break the cycle.
we all die someday.
It sounds cruel, but it is the surest truth that we all have.
For now the circle might be unbreakable but what happens if the brain information and consciousness of everyone is copied into a cyborg and we just enjoy a long life with only our biological body dying.
The utopian dream of humanity: eternal life!
Perhaps with the evolution of technology we will someday be able to reach this milestone. For now they are just attempts.
I consider this to be the biggest selling misconception in history. Very rarely we can come across cases of people over 100 years old, but it does not mean that at this age people are in good health.
The 50% reduction in caloric intake seems to me an empty theory. If this is the case in poor countries where people are poorly fed, we would have a higher life expectancy.
Interesting article.
Haha!! The difference between countries that have poor people is that they do not take in vitamin supplements after fasting rather they take in more calories.
Longevity is one thing that we can work on probably in the nearest future but deterring death is not possible. Nanobots could do more with repairing worn out tissues and cells which could help with a good and healthy life.
Nanorobotics seem to have a lot of prospect and a lot of people believe that Longevity is possible, well for deterring death, it could happen after full AI is achieved.
This does not sound like what we are having soon but it is interesting though**
A lot of research are going on this issue.
This theory is amazing and I am sure it must have taken a lot of your time, but think of it in this direction, if lack of food could increase life span, what about those who live in abject poverty in their country and they do not have food to eat, do you know some of them die as a result of hunger?
It is reducing 50% calories for vitamin supplements. Completely starving oneself with fasting is good but after the fasting, taking in vitamins with little caloric intake will help.
@tipu curate
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